Friday, March 10, 2017

Geert Wilders gains support among Dutch Jews

The party of Geert Wilders, a Dutch nationalist lawmaker, is the
third-most popular choice among local Jews ahead of next week’s
election, according to a pre-elections poll of community members.
With 814 respondents, the poll, whose results the Nieuw Israelietisch Weekblad Jewish weekly published Thursday
ahead of the March 15 general elections, comprised nearly 2 percent of
the Jewish population of the Netherlands. It is one of the most
comprehensive polls conducted in recent years among members of that
community, which is widely believed to be left-leaning.
Despite the Dutch Jewish community’s perceived partisan leanings,
Wilders’ right-wing populist Party for Freedom has the vote of an
estimated 10% of the Jewish population. The party enjoys a 15% approval
rate in the general population, according to other polls, and is in a
neck and neck race for the lead with the ruling, center-right People’s
Party for Freedom and Democracy.
Among Dutch Jews polled, the ruling party was the most popular with
17 percent, followed by the center-left Labor Party, which received 11
percent of the vote among those polled.
The deeply conservative Reformed Political Party and the more liberal
conservative Christian Union received together another 17 percent of
the Jewish vote – a vastly higher proportion than their support in the
general population that likely owes to the stridently pro-Israel and
pro-Jewish policies of both parties.
The Socialist Party, which is distrusted by many Dutch Jews for its
support for anti-Israel causes, received 1.2 percent of the vote. NIW conducted the survey with help from the Crescas Jewish cultural group and other organizations.
Overall, right-wing and center-right parties garnered 55 percent of the vote in the poll.
Approximately 75 percent of the Jews polled in the survey said they
viewed “Muslim values as a threat to Europe.” The same proportion of
those polled said Muslim culture is more violent than others. But
approximately 40 percent of respondents also said Islam belongs in
Europe, whereas another 40 percent said it does not.
Wilders, who in his youth lived for two years on an Israeli moshav in
the Jordan Valley, has called Israel “a place where I feel home” and
said it was “close to his heart.” He has also called Israel a “canary in
the coalmine” and “the West’s first line of defense against Islam,”
including to his many visits to the Jewish state. He has repeatedly said
he was arguing for “Judeo-Christian values,” which he said are
threatened by Islam in the Netherlands and elsewhere.
The Socialist Party, which is distrusted by many Dutch Jews for its
support for anti-Israel causes, received 1.2 percent of the vote. NIW conducted the survey with help from the Crescas Jewish cultural group and other organizations.
Overall, right-wing and center-right parties garnered 55 percent of the vote in the poll.
Approximately 75 percent of the Jews polled in the survey said they
viewed “Muslim values as a threat to Europe.” The same proportion of
those polled said Muslim culture is more violent than others. But
approximately 40 percent of respondents also said Islam belongs in
Europe, whereas another 40 percent said it does not.
Wilders, who in his youth lived for two years on an Israeli moshav in
the Jordan Valley, has called Israel “a place where I feel home” and
said it was “close to his heart.” He has also called Israel a “canary in
the coalmine” and “the West’s first line of defense against Islam,”
including to his many visits to the Jewish state. He has repeatedly said
he was arguing for “Judeo-Christian values,” which he said are
threatened by Islam in the Netherlands and elsewhere. http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/226487